Where to find Sinistea in Pokémon Sword and Shield

Sinistea can be only be found in Glimwood Tangle, which sits between Stow-on-Side and Ballonlea.

Sinistea location.

Like the majority of Pokémon in Glimwood Tangle, Sinistea is a random encounter in the long grass. It also has a low encounter rate, so be prepared to wait a while for a Sinistea to appear.

Phony Form and Antique Form Sinistea in Pokémon Sword and Shield explained

There are a lot of forgeries out in the antiques world and, it turns out, the same can be said for tea based ghost-type Pokémon.

Turns out that the majority of Sinistea's you encounter in the Glimwood Tangle are actually forgeries or, to be accurate, the tea cups they reside in are forgeries. These are the Phony Sinistea.

As the Polteageist Pokédex entry explains, "This species lives in antique teapots. Most pots are forgeries, but on rare occasions, an authentic work is found".

An Antique Sinistea or Polteageist will have a small little blue authenticity stamp on the underside of its bottom ridge, which, if you've watched a lot of Antiques Roadshow, is very important indeed.

The only times you can clearly see this authenticity stamp is when either Pokémon are Dynmaxing or when you select the 'Motion / Cry' option in the Pokédex.

On the left - Phony Sinistea. On the right - Antique Sinistea.

There is, thankfully, no stats or move difference between a Phony Sinistea or Polteageist and an Antique one, so don't worry if you catch a forgery; you do have a real Sinsitea, it just happens to live in a knockoff Ridgway.

If you do want an Antique Sinistea, however, be prepared to catch an awful lot of them, as they rarely appear in the wild. We caught 19 Sinistea and only had one rare form.

All of the Sinistea.

The only way to tell if you have a Phony Form or not is to see whether you can evolve Sinistea with the Cracked Pot. If you can't, then congratulations! You've got the real deal on your hands.

An Antique Sinistea won't evolve using the Cracked Pot.

Where to find the Cracked Pot and Chipped Pot in Pokémon Sword and Shield

Both the Cracked Pot and Chipped Pot can be found in Stow-on-Side.

You can find one Cracked Pot hidden away behind the Pokémon Centre.

Begin climbing the stairs that lead to the Pokémon Gym, but, after a couple of steps, climb the ladder you see on your right.

Walk along the roof you've found yourself on and pick up the Cracked Pot, which sits near the jumpable ledge.

The location of the Cracked Pot in Stow-on-Side.

You can buy additional Cracked Pots and a Chipped Pot from the Bargain Seller in Stow-on-Side.

Every day he'll have a new item for sale and will tell you which one he'll be selling tomorrow. If you didn't buy yesterday's bargain, he'll also allow you to buy that one too.

The items the Bargain Seller sells are on rotation and the prices vary. This means you might have to wait a couple of days for your Chipped Pot.

The Bargain Seller in Stow-on-Side.

How to evolve Sinistea into Polteageist in Pokémon Sword and Shield

Once you're ready to evolve your Sinsitea, open up your Bag from the X menu.

You'll need a Cracked Pot if you're evolving a Phony Sinistea and a Chipped Pot if you're evolving an Antique Sinistea.

Both the Cracked Pot and Chipped Pot can be found in the 'Other Items' section of your Bag.

Scroll down till you find your pot of choice, select it and then the option to 'Use this item.'

Finally, select your Sinistea to use the pot on it and it will happily evolve into a Polteageist.